Teenager ‘Didn’t Need To Lie’ About Voices

A court’s been told a teenager charged with murdering two people in Colchester, “did not need to pretend to hear voices.”

Both the prosecution and defence have finished summing up their cases to the jury today, and the judge has begun summing up.

The teenager at the centre of this trial denies murder, but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

He claims voices in his head made him kill James Attfield and Nahid Almanea back in 2014.

The prosecution started this morning by saying the teenager was lying about those auditory hallucinations, saying it was nothing more than an attempt to ‘hoodwink’ the jury.

They’ve based that on the fact that for two years he says he heard voices, but no one ever noticed.

He reminded them of the evidence of Dr Joseph yesterday, who, after evaluating the defendant, believed his claims of hearing ‘voices’ actually represents “his internal thoughts of violence and sadism which he enjoys thinking about.”

That evidence was based also on how he responded to anti-psychotic medication too quickly, and his recovery in a matter of days being more likely to be down to the dugs’ general calming action, rather than it’s anti-psychotic action.

But the defence came back, arguing that the youngster confessed to these killings of his own accord when he’d been arrested not for murder, but the possession of a knife.

The lawyer argued if he was indeed clever and manipulative enough to lie, he should have known by staying quiet he’d have gotten away with it all, as the police had no evidence to link him to the two deaths.

“Is it a callous psychopathic murder…

“Or is it, more likely that this was a boy caught up, in what I want to describe as a perfect storm of autism, increasing isolation and paranoia, leading to psychosis which lead to him to kill?”